March 12 – Egypt’s Hany Abo Rida and Morocco’s Fouzi Lekjaa have retained their seats on the FIFA Council, while Souleiman Waberi, Ahmed Yahya, Djibrilla Hamidou and Ibrahim Kanizat have been elected as the new African representatives. Samuel Eto’o has won a seat on the CAF executive committee.
At Wednesday’s extraordinary general assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo, Egypt, the continent’s six seats on FIFA’s highest decision-making body came up for election. With 49 and 35 votes respectively, Lekjaa and Rida, two long-standing powerbrokers in the African game, won re-election for a seat on the body that comes with an annual compensation of $250,000.
Djibrilla Hamidou of Niger, a colonel nicknamed Pelé, also gained 35 votes while Waberi of Djibouti and Yahya of Mauritania each secured 29 votes. Last year, Waberi, the third vice-president of CAF, resigned from his position as president of the Djiboutian Football Federation after being suspended by the Ministry of Sports.
Comoros’ Kanizat Ibrahim, CAF’s fifth vice president, won the female quota seat, winning the vote against incumbent Council member Isha Johansen from Sierra Leone and Burundi’s Lydia Nsekera, an IOC member who previously sat on the Council.
There had been 12 candidates for six seats with current FIFA Council member Mathurin de Chacus of Benin withdrawing from the race at the last minute. Previously, Mamoutou Touré, another current FIFA Council member, had decided not to stand again, under pressure from a corruption investigation at home. Touré, at present, is imprisoned.
Ahead of the FIFA Council ballot, CAF boss Patrice Motsepe had said: “I said to Gianni, can we do some magic and put all of them in the FIFA Council and change the laws of FIFA? There are 13 candidates for six positions and every single one of them – whether it’s Pinnick, whether it’s Waberi, Senghor, Yahya – the list goes, Fouzi, Madame Kanizat, Isha, our wonderful lady from Burundi. World Class! Absolutely. So I have confidence in who you think are the right people. Some of the members association phoned me and said, ‘President, I’ve never been so important during the elections’.”
With 28 votes, Nigeria’s Amaju Pinnick, a loyal FIFA footsoldier, missed out on retaining a seat. Yahya and Waberi both received 29 votes. The Mauritanian had met with other African football officials and FIFA officials in Nouakchott in the run-up to the elections.
Cameroonian football boss and former FC Barcelona legend Samuel Eto’o was one of five officials elected unopposed to CAF’s executive committee. Mustapha Ishola Raji of Liberia retained his seat while Wallace Karia (Tanzania), Kurt Simeon-Okraku (Ghana) and Sadi Walid (Algeria) will be new members. Elvis Chetty of the Seychelles lost his place to Feizal Sidat of Mozambique and Samir Sobha of Mauritius. Bestine Kazadi Ditabala of DR Congo won the female seat.
Eto’o’s election was not without controversy. Last week, CAS had cleared Eto’o to run in the elections after he was excluded by CAF’s governance committee in January. Eto’o has a chequered track record, but Motsepe believes that “he has a contribution to make” and “will restore Cameroon to the glory days.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1741801615labto1741801615ofdlr1741801615owedi1741801615sni@i1741801615tnuk.1741801615ardni1741801615mas1741801615